Report: Apple Pay now has over 250m users, or 31 percent of active iPhones

A new report from Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster estimates that 31 percent of iPhone users have made at least one purchase with Apple Pay in the past year, bringing the total number of Apple Pay users to around 252 million. This represents an increase of 7 percent from a year ago. These numbers are only educated estimates, however, as Apple does not release specifics on Apple Pay adoption, however Munster is basing his analysis on Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent disclosure that over one billion Apple Pay transactions occurred last quarter, in light of past reports of year-over-year Apple Pay growth, and Munster adds that he expects transaction growth of 200 percent over the next year, and believes that the number of global smartphone users who use their iPhone as a digital wallet will eventually rise to 80 percent, adding that Apple will likely lead the pack as the “premium digital wallet” due to its payment integration across both mobile and desktop platforms, the strength of the Apple brand with retailers and banks, and its support for “all five payment pillars” of mobile, desktop, in-app, peer to peer, and point of sale transactions.

While Munster notes that Apple Pay is still too small to have an impact on Apple’s overall Services business, he expects the digital wallet to rise in prominence as a marketable iPhone feature. He also adds that adoption of Apple Pay internationally is dramatically outpacing U.S. adoption, with 85 percent of Apple Pay users located outside of the United States, likely due in part to the wider availability of infrastructure for contactless payments in other countries. Apple Pay is estimated to have 38 million users in the U.S. and 215 million in the 20+ other countries where Apple Pay is available. [via MacRumors]